BT Broadband 'Revolution' Halted After London Council Rejects 89% Of Planning Requests

Huffington Post UK/PA

Telecoms giant BT has halted its roll-out of super-fast broadband from an upmarket area of London after being refused permission to install cabinets in the streets.

The firm said it had decided to pull its engineers from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea after having 96 of its 108 applications for street cabinets rejected by the local council.

BT warned that 34,000 homes and businesses in the borough will miss out on the high speed broadband "revolution."

The firm said it had already installed more than 4,000 fibre street cabinets across 31 boroughs in London, including ones with many conservation areas

BT said Kensington and Chelsea seemed to find the cabinets "ugly" and wanted to leave the streets as uncluttered as possible.

A BT spokesman said: "We can confirm we have ceased deployment of fibre broadband in Kensington and Chelsea. This is unfortunate but we were left with no option after having the vast majority of our applications rejected by the council.

"Other councils, including those of neighbouring boroughs, have shown a greater eagerness to enjoy the benefits of fibre broadband.

"We will therefore re-focus our engineers' efforts in other areas where planning authorities have taken a positive approach and are keen to ensure their residents and businesses can benefit from this technology."